


just for a moment let's be still

by Midnightminx90



Category: Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, The Mummy (1999)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Mentions of WW1, Old Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 21:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30145779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnightminx90/pseuds/Midnightminx90
Summary: After Israel and solving the death of the Maharaja of Alvar, Jack and Phryne travel to Egypt, where they both encounter old friends from the War
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell, Phryne Fisher & Jonathan Carnahan, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	just for a moment let's be still

**Author's Note:**

> There's something about that post on tumblr, where it mentions how alike Jonathan and Phryne are, that makes one want to see the two of them in the same room
> 
> This would be set in about 1929/1930, depending on when in '29 the Crypt of Tears was set

“Why, I would almost say I’d be surprised to find you here of all places, but good Lord, I ‘m more surprised to find you alive if I’m honest!”   
  
Jack glances over to see an unfamiliar man, somewhat of his own age perhaps, approaching him and Phryne.   
  
“Well, Jonathan Carnahan! I could say the same thing about you!” Phryne sounds elated, and Jack’s all too familiar fear when it comes to Phryne and her gentlemen friends kicks in again.   
  
She rises, elegant as ever, kissing Jonathan on the corner of his lips, and Jack does his best to reign in the jealousy. He should know better by now, after spending weeks with her and having finally been invited to her bed, and being both able and willing to accept.    
  
But there is some history between her and the newcomer, and Jack won’t rest until he learns what.   
  
“Jonathan, this is Detective Inspector Jack Robinson of City South Police Station in Melbourne. Jack, this is my good friend Jonathan Carnahan. We met during the war.”   
  
Ah, so that explains the look in the other man’s eyes. Now, after a closer look, Jack recognises the all too familiar look that still meets him in the mirror each morning.    
  
“Good to meet you Mr. Carnahan,” Jack says as he rises from his own chair to greet the other man.   
  
“We don’t do formalities here, old chap,” Jonathan says, shaking his hand. “I haven’t been called that in ages, except by the servants. Stuff like that tends to get lost after a war, you know?”   
  
The look on Jonathan’s face tells Jack he’s seen the same in himself.   
  
“Very well, Jonathan. what brings you here then?”   
  
“Oh, an adventure with family, I guess you could call it. You never met Evy, but surely I’ve mentioned her? Librarian, Egyptologist, only interested in dead things, you know the type. Well, slightly more interesting in the living after she found herself a husband a few years ago, thanks to me, but still...”   
  
“Unca Jon!”   
  
He’s interrupted by a small child, to Jack’s eyes no more than two or three, stumbling towards them at a fast pace, followed by a man and woman Jack can only assume are his parents.    
  
“Hey little one! Shouldn’t you be asleep by now?” Jonathan scoops the boy up and hands him over to the woman.   
  
“Want to say goodnight,” the boy says. “Read me story!”   
  
“Your uncle is busy and I’ve already read you a story, Alex. Now say good night and let uncle Jonathan talk with his friends.”   
  
The boy’s lower lip starts to tremble, and Jack doesn’t have to look over to Phryne to know the look on her face, knowing too well her feelings for children.   
  
“Jack?”    
  
He looks up to the man who just spoke, struggling to place him, brain trying to remember the few times he’s been in contact with Americans.   
  
“Wait, O’Connell?” Not a man he’d expected to see here, or at all really, if Jack’s to be honest with himself. “Still in Egypt, is it, or back?”   
  
“You two know each other then?” The woman asks, and Jack can see the semblance between her and Jonathan.   
  
“Evy, I take it? And yes, we fought together in the Legion before I returned to Melbourne.”   
  
“Jack Robinson then? Police, I think Rick said?”   
  
“That’s right. Unlike your husband, I had a job to return to.”   
  
“A wife too, if I remember correctly,” Rick adds, looking to Phryne.   
  
“Phryne Fisher,” she says, rising once again to greet the couple. “Lady detective. Jack and I met through work and much as he wished, he could never get rid of me.” She smiles at him, that devilish smile so often reserved for her lovers. And now him.   
  
“Rosie couldn’t accept the changes the War brought,” Jack says simply. “It did not last long after my return.”   
  
“War will do that to you,” Phryne adds, and her words hold a serious tone Jack can’t remember hearing from her. “I met your brother while serving as a nurse. It changed us all, and we’ve all found different ways to deal with it, I’m sure.”   
  
“What’s war?” the boy, Alex asks, and Jack had forgotten he was there.   
  
“Bad things, little one, that I hope you never have to see,” Phryne says.    
  
“Oh, “ he says, then turns again to his uncle. “Story please?”   
  
“Tomorrow, okay Alex?”   
  
“You promise?”   
  
“I promise.”   
  
“Okay.” The boy still looks defeated, but then he jawns so wide that Jack expects to hear the joints pop.   
  
“I’ll take him to bed and let you catch up,” Evy says. “I’ll join you once he’s asleep.”   
  
“The usual?” Rick asks her, kissing his son on the top of his head. Evy smiles in return, then leaves for what Jack assumes are room upstairs.   
  
“Sweet kid,” Jack says, as they all sit down again.   
  
“And a handful. Takes it from his parents,” Jonathan says, hand in the air to catch the attention of a waiter.   
  
“His uncle too,” Rick adds, and there’s a calmness to him now, something so unfamiliar that Jack aches at it. “Winston’s dead. Got his wish in the end, helping us save Evy.”   
  
Jack nods. “Surprised he lasted that long.”   
  
“Well, I know he wanted out, but he also wanted to feel useful. Winston was never the one to just end it, too proud to do it that way, I reckon.”    
  
“To live is the bravest thing we can do,” Phryne says, raising her glass. “To the lucky dead.”   
  
“And those with the will to live on.” Jonathan adds, lifting an imaginary glass.   
  
“To having someone worth living for,” Rick chimes in.   
  
“Hear hear!” Jack finishes.   
  
They sit in silence until Evy returns, the only break being Rick and Jonathan placing their orders when the server arrives.   
  
“You haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” Jonathan asks. “Australia is rather far away, after all.”   
  
“Long story short,” Phryne says, “Jack came to pay his respects at my memorial, after I was reported to have passed in Jerusalem. He decided to stay to help me, and we went to Israel to help a friend of mine. After that was all cleared up, we went to solve the murder of my husband, and then we came here.”   
  
“And here I thought you weren’t the marrying kind, old girl!” Jonathan exclaims, and Jack’s not surprised to hear that sentiment from someone else.   
  
“Well, neither are you old friend, and besides, it was in order to keep up appearances. He was, oh, what was the term again? A confirmed bachelor, I believe. He needed to keep the throne, and I liked him well enough to help. If one is inclined to marriage, I think one should be allowed to marry whoever one wishes to.”   
  
“And you Jack?”   
  
“I won’t marry again, if that’s what you’re wondering. But what we have is enough, and even if Phryne were to agree to settle down, I could never ask that of her. A gilded cage is still a cage, is it not? She soars as high and far as that plane of hers, and as long as she’ll have me, I’ll be along. Even if I do have to go back to Melbourne soon or else I’ll have no job to come back to this time.”   
  
“Oh, Jack, I’m sure you could be allowed to work for me if you’re so inclined.”   
  
“But then who’s desk would you sit on and who’s authority would you challenge each day and at every crime scene?” Jack asks, and oh, how he loves the smile on her face at his words.   
  
“Fine, you do have some fair points. Not everyone resists for my charms for as long as you did, Jack, and I would hate to see my efforts go to waste. Besides, what about poor Hugh when you’re not around to save him from himself? I’d hate to see Dottie need to step in.”   
  
He laughs at that, and she joins, and Jack feels free in this moment, here, with new and old friends.   
  
“Hugh is my subordinate, and he’s married to Phryne’s maid and helper,” he explains, before the others can ask. “Like us, they met through the first case Phryne took on. What was it, a mere day after your arrival in Melbourne?”   
  
“We moved,” Phryne adds, “after the war. Back to England, as my father was the sole living male heir of the family after the war ended. Went from poverty to manors and servants and fancy outfits in the blink of an eye. I needed my independence, needed away from them, and Australia seemed the best place for it.”    
  
“Money suits you,” Jonathan says. “Evy and I are almost in the same position; our parents died in a plane crash some years back, and we were given a monthly stipend. Say, am I the only one who finds it too easy to spend it all at once, or is my sister the strange one here for saving?”   
  
“Well, a house, car, plane and staff of two, in addition to two cab drivers and their new cab, it adds up for sure. But fashion, dear Jonathan, is where the temptation lies. It would look bad if people knew me as rich if I didn’t present as such, would it not? Besides, it’s easier to draw a man’s attention with the right garments, isn’t that right Jack?”   
  
Phryne’s flirtatious tone and the way she looks at him has Jack choking on his drink.   
  
“Whatever you say, Miss Fisher.”   
  
“See? Even the mere mention leaves poor Jack a mess. Here,” she hands him her handkerchief. “It does help that my clients pay me well for my services. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the police incompetent, but…”   
  
Jack knows this is a trap, hears it in her words.   
  
“Phryne has been invaluable, especially in the light of Rosie’s father, who at the time was the Chief Commissioner, being corrupt as well as working with Rosie’s new fiancé Sidney to traffic young girls out of the country. Without her, they would have gotten away with it, and George worked against us in order to stop us from finding out. She bends the rules too much, but her experience and the way she sees people, the ways she can get around the law unlike us...“   
  
“Just admit you wouldn’t enjoy your job as much without me Jack,” Phryne says, grinning as she takes his hand.   
  
“Only if you admit the same,” he replies, kissing the back of her hand.   
  
“It’s good to see you smile, Jack,” Rick says.   
  
“I’ll say the same about Phryne,” Jonathan adds.   
  
Evy doesn’t speak, just observing them all for a moment.   
  
“I may not have participated in the war,” she starts, fiddling with her glass until Rick reaches out for her, “but I’ve observed how it changed my brother. From the way you speak, Miss Fisher, I see the two of you are alike in not having taken anything serious since then. And DI Robinson, we may only have met, but I see Rick in you, and how you have taken too much serious. Like I said, I may not know the horrors, but I do think… I do think that at one point, one needs to think about the way one copes with it. There may not be any right or wrong way, but it is important to try, at the very least, to not let it destroy you. To, oh, I don’t know, not take everything seriously, or to not take it all too lightly. Maybe to find a balance.”   
  
“Thank you Evy, and Phryne will do. But I do think Jack and I have learnt to balance each other out. See, he’s not even in his three-piece suit!”   
  
“Also known as my work uniform,” Jack chides, knowing too well that she knows that.   
  
“Yes, well, how often do you take it off outside of work?”   
  
“There was the one time that…”   
  
“Yes yes, on the beach that one time, and most every day since we left for Israel. Not much of a choice there I’m afraid, what with the weather.”   
  
“You win,” he concedes, smiling as he shakes her head.   
  
“I see your point miss… Phryne,” Evy says. “I can’t speak much for Rick, as I never knew him before and we met when I saved him from prison, but I like to think I’ve helped him ease back into a normal life.”   
  
Rick laughs at that. “Well, I wouldn’t call what we do normal, but it beats fighting wars for the Legion.”   
  
“Excuse me,” Jonathan interrupts, sounding irritated. “You saved him from prison? I distinctly remember being there as well.”   
  
“Yes, but first of all you didn’t want to be, and second, you were the one who made him end up there in the first place.” Evy glares at her brother, then shudders. “Besides, you weren’t with the warden, trying to negotiate Rick’s release, when the pig tried to feel you up with a hand on your thigh.”    
  
“He did  _ what _ ?!” the rest of them reply in almost perfect unison.   
  
“Well, he died to those awful beetles and I guess he deserved it. He wasn’t the best of men, but at least he didn’t try again, I’ll give him that.”   
  
“That is why I always carry a dagger and a pistol,” Phryne adds, tone deceptively light as Jack can see the anger in her eyes. “Tends to scare most away.”   
  
“But not Jack?” Jonathan asks.   
  
“Oh, Jack’s braver than I remember you being; I’m sure you would have left had I done that all those years ago.”   
  
“Yes, well, I know when to cut my losses.”   
  
“Now why don’t I believe that?” Phryne asks, laughter in her voice.    
  
“He’s brave when it comes to those he cares about,” Evy says, smiling. “Helped keep me from being sacrificed, stopping what we’d unknowingly started. Sometimes he cares too much about himself, others too little.”   
  
“Prone to getting himself into danger, is he?” Jack asks, eyes on Phryne as he squeezes her hand. “Sounds familiar.”   
  
“Yes, yes, enough about me. You must have some stories to share of your cases Phryne? Murder and mayhem surely?”   
  
“Oh, more than you’d believe! But I think we’ve spoken enough of death and near-deaths for one night, and I’m sure others here would agree. We’ll be here for a few more days, and if you are too, we could save it for another night. I suggest we just be still, if only for a moment, to celebrate the fact that we can. Then we can exchange stories of near sacrifices and ”   
  
“Splendid idea,” Evy says, raising her glass. “To new friends, and old!”   
  
“And to shared experiences, good and bad,” Rick adds.


End file.
